Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Philips headphones

I recently lost my old pair of headphones that I used to work out and commute with. I was not about to spend a whole lot of time replacing them, so when I saw a few pairs of them at my local CVS, I figured I would just pick up a pair. As it turned out, I could not have chosen a better set if I tried.

I have been using the behind-the-head variety of headphone and there are a few things that have bothered me. I will list philips solutions tothese problems as well as features I didn't even know I wanted

The behind the head band is too stiff. This peeves me in two circumstances. First, when I slide one headphone off of my ear and have I rest below my ear so that I can answer the phone, the stiffness results in the headphone wanting to spring back up, this applying uncomfortable pressure to the underside of my ear. Second, after wearing them for a while they can cause a headache from the constant pressure. (initially I just thought it was my bad luck that I had an enormous head, but my diminiutive wife agreed with me)

The edges of the foam pads that cover each speaker are captured so that they will not wear and rupture. This was a big problem with my old pair as after a while one could slide the foam right off.

The headphone wire is protected by a braided fabric sheath. This likely has little if any effect to the performance, but it looks stronger, and that matters.

There is a supplementary strain relief cord. Again, this might have a marginal benefit, but u feel much more comfortable when I accidentally drop my MP3 player knowing that there is a separate cable ready to take that force.

So that's about it right now. I will update this later with somE stock photos, but I am on my blackberry on the train and I have got a 15 degree 2 mile bike ride ahead of me... Time to bundle up

-Chris Loughnane

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